Samsung is offering a new line of memory cards for digital cameras, camcorders, smartphones and tablets. Styled with a brushed metal design, the rugged cards are built to take on severe conditions.
“This new line of cards is guaranteed to survive being submerged in water for up to 24 hours, being run over by a 3,200 pound vehicle, or resist a magnetic current nearly as strong as medical magnets,” reports The Verge.
The new SD and microSD cards are available in “high speed” (reading 15-24MB/s, writing 7-13MB/s) and “plus extreme speed” (24MB/s reading, 21MB/s writing) as well as slower models. Capacities range from 2GB to 32GB.
Prices range from $9.99 to $89.99 based on the speed and capacity.
UK-based startup Speech Graphics has developed new software that predicts how facial muscles move to produce sounds.
“The new lip synching technology uses just audio input to automatically make a 3D character speak,” explains VentureBeat. “Since it uses a universal physics model, the company says it will work across all languages, saving game development time and resources.”
The team from the University of Edinburgh’s School of Informatics and the Centre for Speech Technology Research created the software in response to the growing quantity and cost of dialogue that appears in story-driven video games.
“With our technology, we’re aiming for robust high quality, even better than what you can achieve with motion capture. And because it’s audio-driven, it’s at a price point that makes it scalable to huge amounts of speech,” said co-founder Michael Berger.
London-based social TV company Zeebox is launching clickable TV ads that enable UK users to “purchase products advertised on TV through their tablet or smartphone in real time,” the press release explains.
“Zeebox seems to be one of the only major players in the UK giving them the opportunity to really build a great product in their market and then come to the U.S. with a fine-tuned model and case studies,” comments Lost Remote, noting that U.S. social TV start-ups are also working to make ads useful.
The clickable ads utilize a video fingerprinting technology to recognize ads. A few seconds into the ad, a click-to-buy button appears in Zeebox’s real-time tag stream, with icons to identify the type of product (such as a song or travel service).
The company doesn’t have any deals in place with advertisers yet but is already providing click-through for tagged ads.
According to Zeebox co-founder and CTO Anthony Rose: “For now we’re using click-to-buy zeetags, with our systems and operators selecting the destination — for example, we send music purchases to iTunes, DVDs to Amazon, food to Tesco, cosmetics to Boots.”
Digital Connections (from digital marketing agency 360i) offers an interesting overview of emerging trends in second-screen apps and social TV, including tips for creating effective second-screen experiences for consumers.
1) Design the right space: “Create a space that makes sense for your show and community — find a balance between providing value for your network and value for your fans.”
2) Understand what you’ve created: “Make sure you understand all aspects of the app — if you want to prove value, make sure the app you’ve created has the ability to do so.”
3) Make the app available where fans are: “Be available — if you design an awesome app, your fans will want access to it all the time and from multiple devices; be sure to remain appealing to all ages and demographics.”
4) Try not to turn fans off: “Don’t irritate your fans — if you take the time to build the app, give your fans time to adjust before pushing ads in their face.”
5) Keep fans turned on: “Keep it fresh — your competition is fierce and your fans won’t make a commitment unless you give them a reason to.”
6) Be patient while awaiting results: “Give your community time to adjust to the second-screen experience before attempting to change it; if you’ve done everything right, second-screen success will follow.”
Consumers are watching streaming video content for longer periods of time, according to analysis by tech provider Ooyala.
The study found that video plays on Internet-enabled TVs and mobile devices nearly doubled in Q4, with nearly half of all connected-TV viewers watching through to completion.
This stat is significantly higher than the average for all devices.
“Another interesting tidbit from Ooyala: Though this may not be particularly surprising, Facebook remains a much more active source of online video sharing than Twitter: For every video shared via Twitter in Q4, more than 10 were shared on Facebook,” reports TechCrunch.
In a related MediaPost story, nearly 1 in 3 homes with broadband are regularly screening TV content online, according to Parks Associates. Almost 13 percent use Apple TV, a Roku device or other OTT equipment.
Sales for OTT devices are projected to hit 14 million in 2012, suggests Parks.
Nintendo’s Wii gaming console will be adding TV programming and movies to its entertainment line-up. Hulu and Nintendo have reached an agreement that will allow Wii owners to stream video content from Hulu Plus.
“Subscribers to the service for $7.99 a month will be able to access a wide array of current TV shows, library content, kids fare and classic movies,” reports Multichannel News. “For the first month of launch, users who download Hulu Plus for Wii and do not already have an existing Hulu Plus account will get a two-week free trial.”
“Wii is not only one of the most important entertainment devices in the living room, but one of the most heavily anticipated and requested platforms by users and subscribers,” said Pete Distad, VP of marketing and distribution at Hulu, adding that the Wii launch is part of a larger strategy to expand service availability. “Teaming up with Nintendo gives millions of households across the U.S. an immediate way to access some of their favorite current season shows on-demand in their living room through Hulu Plus.”
The subscription VOD deal also plans to offer Hulu Plus on the handheld 3DS device by the end of the year.
In a move to bolster its long-term advertising business strategy, Twitter rolled out a new service for small businesses and advertisers using American Express cards to buy and place ads on the micro-blogging site.
“Since 2010, Twitter’s in-house sales staff has sold ‘promoted tweets’ to large businesses on a case-by-case basis,” explains Reuters. “The company spent last year developing a self-serve system that could handle a far greater volume of ad transactions and, in November, opened the system to a small number of clients for testing.”
Currently only available via American Express, Twitter plans to offer the service to additional cardholders in the coming months.
For investors and analysts, Twitter’s continual development of its business model is important to the potential upcoming IPO.
Google has disabled a computer code that it was previously using to bypass privacy settings on Apple’s Safari browser in order to track “the Web-browsing habits of people who intended for that kind of monitoring to be blocked,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Google placed the code within ads displayed on popular sites and once activated, the code enables Google tracking across most websites. The sites, however, had no knowledge of the code.
“We were not aware of this behavior,” said Michael Balmoris, AT&T spokesman. “We would never condone it.”
In response, Google said in a statement: “The Journal mischaracterizes what happened and why. We used known Safari functionality to provide features that signed-in Google users had enabled. It’s important to stress that these advertising cookies do not collect personal information.”
Google faces criticism on a number of fronts, especially in response to the recent changes to its privacy policy across all its services. Its search results that promote Google+ have also been highly controversial.
Steve Cronan, CEO and founder of 5th Kind (formerly OTC Productions), discusses his cloud-based and enterprise digital asset management workflow system.
The company started on the “Matrix” sequels in 2001 and is dedicated to solutions that manage “all the digital assets across the full production life cycle, all the way from script to screen, for everybody from the PA to the producer.”
Cronan emphasizes a secure centralized system that automates “all the digital workflows around the collaboration, the distribution and communication” by providing the “tools to keep everybody in synch.”
The 5th Kind system includes mobile interfaces for reviewing on-the-go and a series of modules for addressing different workflows (such as the footage module for managing camera reports).
Hollywood movie promoters are finding success with social media — not just with Twitter and Facebook, but also through sites such as Instagram and We Heart It.
Many executives now receive regular briefings on the social buzz surrounding their films.
“If you have thousands of people talking about your movie, don’t you want to know what they’re saying? The leap people are starting to make is that social media is actually reflective of what audiences think about your movie,” says Ben Carlson, president of research firm Fizzioli.gy.
The Los Angeles Times cites the recent success of a socially-distributed video featuring actor Channing Tatum. “Tatum’s performance wasn’t from a movie, but a ‘Sweet Nothings’ video that marketers for his new film, ‘The Vow,’ posted on Facebook in advance of its opening last weekend. It worked: The romantic tear-jerker blew past expectations to open at No. 1 with $41.2 million in North American ticket sales.”
“With new software to help remove unwanted objects from your pictures, Scalado aims to make mobile photography and digital photo editing that much more advanced,” reports Digital Trends.
Scalado’s Remove is a new patented object-removal technology that records stationary objects in a scene and adds the ability to edit and re-edit elements on the fly.
“After the picture is taken, users can pick out moving objects in the frame that the program had deemed impermanent to the shot, such as passing cars, people or stray animals,” explains the post. “Then, with just a quick tap, those items are cleared from your photo as if they were never there.”
Remove software will be officially unveiled at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona later this month.
Microsoft and Apple are integrating mobile features, interfaces and capabilities into their desktop operating systems.
Apple’s Mac OS X 10.8 (known as Mountain Lion), will include notifications, reminders, Twitter integration, iMessage, and iCloud synchronization.
Windows 8 will incorporate ARM support, the Windows Phone 7 Metro interface, an app store, improved mobile broadband support and instant-on/off abilities.
The moves are reportedly intended to emulate the mobile devices and make it easier for users who want a more mobile and tablet experience.
In a related article, David Pogue highlights the new features of Apple’s Mountain Lion: Apple will update the Mac OS X yearly and a free iCloud account will synch Notes, Reminders, Messages and Game Center across your Apple devices.
Additionally, Game Center is now available on the Mac so you can play some 20,000 games against 100 million people via their iPhones and iPads. Apple TV users can display their Mac screens on TV at 720p resolution. iWork apps can save to iCloud. Gatekeeper controls which apps you install for increased protection against malware and viruses. Screen-sharing with another Mac allows you to share files.
Mountain Lion will be available this summer. Windows 8 is expected later this year.
ICG president Steven Poster, ASC, suggests that the industry form a DCI-like effort aimed at developing “an end-to-end, device independent color management system that delivers nearly a transparent process to the artist.”
“Without standardized procedures and protocols, the complexity of these systems leave us wide open to various failures with some errors resulting in catastrophic data loss,” he added.
Poster called IIF ACES a “major step toward our Holy Grail.” He also cited the ASC CDL.
Asked about shooting ratios during the Q&A, Lewis Rothenberg, digital imaging technician and ICG National VP, admitted: “I would love the studios to put caps on shooting ratios.”
Testronic Labs CEO Seth Hallen related that in 2011 home entertainment suffered in hardware and content sales. He suggested that part of the problem was the economic environment and in part what he called “consumer burn out.”
Citing FutureSource research, Hallen reported that there were 485 billion video views in 2011, with YouTube making up 45 percent of those. Free online TV and movies represent another 8 percent, and other free content such as MTV is another 46 percent. This means that 1 percent was paid content in 2011. “This represents massive consumer competition for eyeballs,” Hallen said. “This is an indication of what the industry is up against.”
Hallen suggested that growth in connected device ownership will boost online revenues. 60 percent of U.S. phone owners had a smartphone in 2011, and that is expected to grow to 90 percent in next 3-4 years, according to the FutureSource research. “We are moving into a fragmented world when it comes to entertainment access.”
On content: “Packaged delivery is still a very important part of the business, and will continue to be so.” He added that by the end of the year, 1/3 of all U.S. homes are expected have a Blu-ray player, and BD-Live is an important bridge. “Online access is the future.”
DECE’s Jim Taylor — citing rental/VOD, sell-through, subscription, and ad supported models — said, “all of these business models will be part of electronic distribution… I think sell-through will be a tiny part. If initiatives like UltraViolet are able to gain traction, then I think we’ll see the pendulum switch back.”
“We have seen a significant shift to streaming from download.” But Taylor pointed out that ubiquitous streaming requires ubiquitous Internet, and there will be situations when bandwidth won’t be there, especially with the move toward higher resolutions. Taylor suggests that streaming and download will continue to co-exist.
Taylor’s UltraViolet status report: Roughly 100 titles are available from Warners, Sony, Universal and Paramount. A launch is currently underway, focused on streaming. Mid-year developments will “pave the way for download.” “UltraViolet is focused on purchase… I don’t see physical media disappearing anytime soon,” he predicted.
“We are making progress toward ubiquitous access to content,” Taylor said. That effort includes the introduction of DECE’s Common File Format (the spec is publicly available). DECE is additionally working on a Common Streaming Format (CSF).
Taylor: “Nirvana might be that everyone standardizes on CFF… It might also be that UltraViolet becomes the EST option for all services. The ecosystems can interoperate… Do I think we are going to get there? No, I don’t. The question is will we end up with a totally fragmented marketplace. If we can get to at least a semi-fragmented marketplace with more interoperability — that would be a great place to be.”
